Thursday, 6 September 2012

It's been a very busy summer from making floral accessories at Port Elliot festival in Cornwall to customizing sports shoes in the ADIDAS athletes lounge at The Olympic Games......... and inbetween going to Germany to take part in a new project for Vauxhall. You may remember my "ADAM&YOU" article about Opal aligning with TEED on his video for American Dream Part 11 - well, this is another phase in partnering creatives with their new model in "ADAM journeys". This avantgarde design has been developed as a lifestyle vehicle completely tailored to your personality with interchangeable options of body parts, fixtures and interior fittings. Louise Gray, James Small and I took a trip to the design HQ in Russelheim to learn all about the ADAM Journeys concept to start thinking about how we could apply our signature style to one of their variants. I took on the "SLAM" personality which is a recommended composition of combinations for a street-led aesthetic combining a graphic palette of primary colours. To implement that dynamic in contrast to Louise's "GLAM" and James's "JAM" characters, I made a little cardboard maqutte to have a play in applying an origami sculpture to the bonnet and boot. I wanted to literally accessorize the car as I would a model! To help realise and fabricate that vision I worked with "Object Solution" who formulated cutting geometric components out of a Dibond aluminium coated plastic in lilac and mustard. In one day we built these multi-coloured modular pieces as a shell around the chassis in a process I håve coined "car couture". Thomas Giddings was on site to record the transformation and finished personlised pieces which you can see in the second of two films. The first behind the scenes film captures the mentor side of our creative journeys, introducing the initial ideas to our mentors for input before reaching our final designs. Each designer shared their story of navigation thru their career by support and guidance of a strong figure from the start of their own journey in the industry. This is a fascinating element of the program unveiling an insight into the relationship between Diane Pernet and I, James and Kim Jones, Louise and Richard Sloan. I feel incredibly honoured that Diane could travel to London to take part in the venture and roll as my mentor. I'm really looking forward to seeing her again for the launch at London Fashion Week and hopefully for my own show the day before.All three cars will be on display for the duration of fashion week starting on Friday 14th outside Vauxhall Fashion Scout at The Freemason's Hall culminating in a screening of the films on the 18th.Above are my work-in-progress snaps from the initial minature prototype to construction with Dan Preston at Object Solution thru to the final install day with Robert Storey's set design taking shape in the background for the film.Read and see more content over on Vogue.

Wednesday, 5 September 2012

One of ASVOFF winning directors Zaiba Jabbar has just released her latest film work in the form of music video for Seye (pronounced "Shey-ah"). The Afrobeats-influencedelectropop musician colours his songwriting fusing sounds from across continents which Zaiba has tapped into and translated for "Mexicana Bounce" with a multicolour treatment. Watching it I literally thought it was shot in Mexico with the beaming bright sun and blue sky but as it turns out it was all carried out on a standard English rainy summer day! To battle the elements and capture the storyboard's exotic essence, Zaiba teamed up with a crew of creatives including artist Josephine Chime on the cosmic vignettes: "I kind of ran with the Mexicana theme and it dawned on me that a pop up beach on a roof top would be a great way to create our own Seye world, full of fun and colour. Amazing art direction from my friend Ruth Crawford and the alternative postcards were a cool way to have some interesting in-camera fun and transitions made by Josephine Chime. I'm kind of obsessed with the idea of a frame within a frame- that became literal with the frames of the sunglasses too. I loved the idea of incorporating a 2d world into our 3d world. Our beach facade was made by illustrator Tess Redburn.It's such a great track too and Seye was such a great artist to work with!As you can tell the shoot was pretty wet, it rained for most of the day... but everyone mucked in and I think it came across as being pretty sunny!"Bromley based Seye who now has his own solo sound 'The Future of Afro Music' was born in Nigeria moving between Lagos, Holland, Ecuador and ending up in south-east London with his five older brothers and sisters – one of whom, Gbenga, is the bass player with Metronomy. I recognised this signature hairstyle from one of his early musical stints as session guitarist as part of Paloma Faith's band. More recently he's been spending time on tour with with Lana Del Ray as support and just finished another with Emeli Sandé. BUT the main news of note (pun intended) at the moment is that Seye has been aboard the Africa Express train with Damon Albarn's collective, taking a revolving mix of musicans around the country this week for which there are still tickets! Keep up to speed with all of Seye's upcoming news over at his Facebook, Twitter & site.Thanks to Zaiba for these behind the scenes pictures - see her back catalogue of work on her site here.

Sunday, 2 September 2012

Here are some snaps from the Gothic Lolita theme Friday LATE event at the V&A "Loli-POP!" which included kimono demonstrations, Purikamera Photo Booth, workshops, talks, wig and nail bars, jewellery making, films and djs! "Kitty and the Bulldog: Lolita fashion and the influence of Britain" exhibition is still on till January so make sure you find it next time you are at the V&A as it is free admission (see previous post).

Its A London Thing

My book out on September 19th

'Multi-talented Fred Butler is quite the east London renaissance girl, with fingers in so many creative pies that they're difficult to tick off.

Of course, there are the splendidly exuberant accessories, wearable sculptures whose sparkle has attracted fashion magpies such as Gaga, Bjork and Nicki Minaj. But there is also custom made prop styling, art directing and film making.